


Offline

by Haberdasher



Series: Transcendence AU [39]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Transcendence, Chatlogs, Gen, Major Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 07:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2988689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chatroom member Betelgeuse requests urgent assistance regarding a pressing problem in her offline life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Offline

== Betelgeuse has joined ==

[!] Grimalkin: I don’t think they want to hear about all that, Saffron.

Kitsune01: There be a Bee! :D

SaffronSnow: Are you sure?

Ghost_In_The_Machine: *inches away from you two*

Betelgeuse: help

Ghost_In_The_Machine: hi bee

SaffronSnow: Betelgeuse? Grimalkin told me about you. All good things, I promise.

[!] Grimalkin: Bee, meet Saffron. She is adorable and has the most perfect pixie cut in the world and is just the best person ever in so many ways. And she’s new here. I told her we don’t bite too much.

Betelgeuse: shifter in home

Ghost_In_The_Machine: Not again please ;3;

SaffronSnow: Oh, you. I’d say the same but these guys already know you’re perfect, right?

Kitsune01: help, not hello? is your autocorrect acting up again, bae? <3

Betelgeuse: NO

SaffronSnow: What?

Betelgeuse: HELP

Kitsune01: shifter? with an f? not another t? :P

[!] Grimalkin: There’s a shapeshifter in your house?

Betelgeuse: YES

Betelgeuse: WHAT DO

SaffronSnow: …oh dear.

Ghost_In_The_Machine: Call the police mebbe?

Kitsune01: You know April Fools Day isn’t until next week right xP

Betelgeuse: called them but still

Kitsune01: At least it’s not the lovey-doveys still :P

[!] Grimalkin: Is it being aggressive, or just lost/trapped? Don’t be too quick to hurt it.

Betelgeuse: I’M NOT KIDDING

Ghost_In_The_Machine: Be careful girlie ;3;

Kitsune01: …

Betelgeuse: hurt Mom

Kitsune01: …if you’re not just messing with us…

Betelgeuse: how do I kill

SaffronSnow: I’m pretty clueless about the paranormal honestly… what about you, kitty-butt?

Kitsune01: …jfc O_O

Ghost_In_The_Machine: Praying for you lol

== [!] Alcor618 has joined ==

[!] Grimalkin: Shapeshifters have the same weaknesses as their current form does, right? What form is it in?

Kitsune01: NO MOM I’M NOT GONNA VACUUM WHILE INTERNET SHIT’S GOING DOWN

Betelgeuse: don’t know

SaffronSnow: Is this kind of thing normal here?

Ghost_In_The_Machine: I wish I could go karate chop that bad guy for you but sadly all that would do is break my computer screen :P

[!] Alcor618: No welcoming committee?

[!] Grimalkin: Do you have any weapons on you?

Kitsune01: We’re kinda busy, Alcor

Betelgeuse: no weapons

SaffronSnow: Okay, I’ll shut up now.

Betelgeuse: please help

Kitsune01: No offense

[!] Grimalkin: Then you probably shouldn’t risk trying to kill it. Hide, or leave the area.

Betelgeuse: scared

[!] Alcor618: A shapeshifter’s after Bee, is that it?

Betelgeuse: hiding

Kitsune01: Alcor, its that or April Fools came early xP

Ghost_In_The_Machine:  Maybe you’ll meet a cute policeman ;D

Betelgeuse: don’t wanna die

[!] Grimalkin: I don’t know how else to help, Bee. I wish I did.

[!] Alcor618: Don’t worry. I can help.

[!] Grimalkin: @Ghost_In_The_Machine, not the time.

Betelgeuse: ?

Ghost_In_The_Machine: sorry :(

[!] Alcor618: Will be there soon.

Betelgeuse: ???

SaffronSnow: Oh yeah, you told me about him too…

Betelgeuse: shit

== [!] Alcor618 has left ==

Kitsune01: Oh no what now D:

Betelgeuse: phone

[!] Grimalkin: Bee, are you okay?

Betelgeuse: goodbye

== Betelgeuse has left ==

The girl stared blankly at her phone as its screen faded to black, her fingers still hovering over where its touch screen had only seconds ago been displaying a keyboard. She mentally cursed her decision to play so many games on the phone earlier, burning through precious battery life that could have been her salvation.

Her mind then turned to other regrets. She had never even had her first kiss, too scared to approach any of her many crushes, and now it seemed as though she never would. And Brendan- she had ended her last conversation with Brendan by calling him an idiot, and it was meant to be playful and sarcastic and affectionate of course, but that would be what he remembered her by, her last words to him being an insult. And there were so many things that she had left unsaid, so many experiences that she would now never have…

And she was wearing her Widdlest Wampire pajamas. That was how they were going to find her, wearing a set of dorky pajamas that had been given to her as a gag gift, which were practically twice her size to boot. Man, she should have done her laundry sooner.

The girl pressed her index finger against the power button of her phone frantically, hoping that it would rally for just long enough for her to say more, then relaxed her grip after realizing that her phone was indeed dead for good. ( _As am I_ , a part of her mind that she was desperately trying to silence echoed.)

At least she had had her phone on (and muted) in the first place, having smuggled it into bed to play with when she was supposed to have fallen asleep hours ago. At least she had been able to get a few brief messages to her Internet friends, the ones who had been there for her through thick and thin, the ones who mattered to her as much as any friends she knew in person (well, maybe not as much as Brendan, but that was… different). Even if they hadn’t been able to help her escape her attacker, at least they would know what had happened to her, rather than waiting endlessly to see her log on once more.

At least she had been able to tell them goodbye.

The girl was jolted back into reality by hearing her door screech open.

“Darling?” The voice was high-pitched and sickly sweet. It was her mother’s voice… but the one using it was not her mother. If the screams coming from her mother’s room hadn’t tipped her off, the door being opened without even a token knock or the use of the word “darling” would have.

Her enemy was not only strong, but clever.

The girl wasn’t quite sure if she could say the same about herself.

"It’s okay, darling. I got rid of that nasty little beasty. You can come out now."

She put all her effort into breathing as slowly and quietly as possible, now noticing how every puff of air she exhaled caused the bed sheets that dangled in front of her face and onto the ground to shake ever so slightly. What time was it now? How long had it been since she’d called the police? Her eyes darted back to her phone, which could have answered these questions and so many more if only she had kept it more fully charged.

"Come give your mommy a big old hug, now, won’t you?"

Though she could only see a small portion of the room from her vantage point under the bed, the girl could see her mother’s- no, the shapeshifter’s feet, covered in those hot pink bunny slippers that her mother always wore at night for some unfathomable reason. The creature shuffled rapidly across the room, stopping only to throw open a door or peek behind a corner.

Was that a police car’s siren she heard, or just her ears ringing?

Her mother had always said that she was lucky to have so much in the world when others had so little, and that she needed to be grateful for each and every item she owned, big or small. Though it probably wasn’t in the spirit that her mother had intended, the girl was now grateful indeed that her room was covered in all sorts of stuff, the piles of clutter forming any number of potential hiding places that the creature had to check.

In the blink of an eye, her mother’s slipper-clad feet became the slimy gray legs of an insect, the footsteps replaced by scuttling that made the girl’s blood run cold.

“C͘om͝e ̴he̶r͝e̛!̀”

More rummaging through clothes and toys and papers, the creature throwing piles from one side of the room to the other. Textbooks slammed against the wall and had their spines cracked in half, papers fluttered onto the ground, the zipper on her favorite jacket ripped off completely.

“I ͟k̵n̛ow ͝yoú’re i̸n͡ here͢, ch͢i͘ĺd́!”

And then another sound, one that the girl couldn’t readily identify. Not the police siren that she had waiting on for what seemed like an eternity, certainly, yet the sheer strangeness of the noise made her heart leap with the thought that whatever it was, at least it couldn’t make things  _worse_ , right?

She caught a glimpse of the mysterious noise’s source out of the corner of her eye. There, standing in front of the shapeshifter, was a being whose humanoid body was pitch black and covered in shining golden lines, hands filled with crackling blue flames.

A demon. She was now stuck in a room with both a shapeshifter and a demon.

Maybe her situation had managed to become even worse than before after all.

Part of her wanted to close her eyes, to curl up into a ball and hope that they wouldn’t see her if she couldn’t see them, but she couldn’t look away. If she was going to die, the girl at least wanted to go out knowing how, if not why.

And yet, preoccupied as she was with thoughts of all that she should have done and of what lay in store for her, she couldn’t fully process what was happening in the fight that erupted in front of her.

The blue flames grew and grew and grew until the room was filled with unholy light, and then there was an ear-piercing shriek and dark laughter, and her eyes burned from the acrid smoke, and…

And then the demon was unopposed, its enemy transformed into a puddle of green blood that seeped into the wooden floor.

The girl held her breath and stared resolutely at the demon’s legs, unwilling to risk catching his eye, though her heartbeat alone seemed plenty loud enough to give her hiding spot away, even if the being in front of her were an ordinary human rather than a nigh-omniscient demon.

Why weren’t the police here by now?

The demon took a few steps towards her, walking as naturally as if his feet were hitting the ground rather than thin air, then knelt to the floor, peeking under the bed and gazing at her.

The darkness and flames fled from his body, leaving only a form that appeared almost human, save for the claws and the wings and the pitch-black eyes.

"Bee?"

His voice was quiet, wavering, and significantly more high-pitched than she had expected.

"Hey, Bee, stop looking so yellow-green, will you? There’s nothing scary here anymore. It’s just me."

She gulped, trying to put the pieces together. The demon in front of her was Alcor, that much she knew, and he was calling her Bee, and that name was from…

"…Alcor618?" Her voice was hoarse and weak.

"At your service." He took off his top hat and tipped it towards her before placing it back onto its former position roughly an inch above his head. "Now, come on out, unless you’re planning on spending the rest of your life under there." He extended his hand, which, while it had sharp claws rather than human fingernails, was at least lacking in blue flames.

Bee nodded and took his hand, dropping her phone gently onto the floor behind her, the demon’s claws occasionally scratching her palm as he helped her wriggle her way out from under the bed. (It was not her most dignified moment.)

As she stood up, Alcor’s eyes darted downward to the girl’s scratches that now welled with blood. “Ooh. Sorry about the… claw marks… there.”

"Don’t-"

"Wait! I know how I can make it up to you!" The demon bobbed up and down, grinning widely. There was a flash of light, and then a small red sphere appeared in his hands. Alcor threw the sphere at the girl; it hit her squarely in the forehead and bounced off, though she managed to catch it before it touched the ground. The orb was smooth and warm to the touch, and as it made contact with each wound on her hand, it glowed with a bright orange light and the cut disappeared without a trace.

"It’s a scale model of the star Betelgeuse. And it’s got my summoning circle inside, so you can use it to summon me whenever. Neat, right?"

Bee twirled around the orb in her hand absentmindedly. “You saved me.”

The demon’s fang-filled grin grew wider, so wide that it made the corners of her own mouth ache just looking at it. “Well, you’re my friend, aren’t you? And I don’t let a̡ny̢b͘o̡dy͞ hurt my friends.”

Bee laughed softly. “My Internet friends really  _are_ evil, my mom was right…”

My mom.

The screams, the blood-curdling screams that had made her instinctively hide under the bed, echoed in her ears once more, drowning out Alcor’s mock-offended response.

_Oh God what happened to Mom_

She hadn’t meant to run, hadn’t even realized that she was sprinting to her mother’s bedroom until she had already rushed through the door and nearly stepped on her mother’s mangled body.

"…M-Mom…"

The girl had never been much of a crier- in fact, she took a certain pride in being tough, in not being a “crybaby”- but now she couldn’t stop her tears from flowing, from blurring her vision and wetting her face, their great number making up for the tears that had gone unused in years past.

"Bee, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, if I had only realized…"

Bee ran to Alcor and gave him a tight embrace, pressing her damp face against the soft fabric of his suit as she wept.

The demon ruffled her hair, his claws occasionally catching on some of the more tangled strands.

"It’s okay, you’re okay, at least you’re okay, everything will work out, I promise…"

After a few minutes, Bee managed to force out a few words between sobs, though they were muffled due to her refusal to break her embrace.

"I’m hugging a demon."

Oh, and  _there_ were the police car sirens. Took them long enough, the bastards. Lot of good that phone call did.

"You sure are."

He laughed, only briefly, but long enough for her to break into a thin, weak smile, even as tears continued to drip down her face.


End file.
